


Lethal Combination

by Elsey8



Series: Akekita Week 2020 [6]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Abstract references to sex kind of idk how else to put it, Accomplice au, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Murder, Sort Of, What-If, its mostly hurt, the violence isnt graphic but they sure do kill people, the whole thing is just in yusuke's mind though theyre just husbands dw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:26:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27570748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsey8/pseuds/Elsey8
Summary: Yusuke entertains the idea of a what-if.Akekita Week Day 6: Accomplice AU
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kitagawa Yusuke
Series: Akekita Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007616
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: Akekita Week





	Lethal Combination

Yusuke can see it. 

Starry eyed, young Kitagawa Yusuke, bumping into young and wronged Akechi Goro. Goro knows, immediately. Of course he knew, perceptive even as young as he was. 

They got along, going to the bathhouse together when Goro’s mom needed him out of the house. They had sleepovers whenever Madarame failed to come home. 

Goro’s mom was a sweet, tired looking woman. She cooked when Yusuke came over, but Goro admitted to him that she rarely does when there’s no company. She always asked about Yusuke’s art, even though at that time it was still developing. Still mostly scribbles. But she spoke about the drawings as if they were masterpieces that belonged in a museum. 

When she left Goro, he stayed with him and Madarame for a while. Goro whispered in the dark about how unfair it was, saying things he didn’t mean about how at least Yusuke’s mom didn’t want to leave him. At least someone wanted Yusuke, even if it was Madarame, even if it was for selfish reasons. Yusuke took it all, and still comforted Goro when he cried himself to sleep every night. 

Goro went into foster care shortly after. Yusuke was unable to follow him as he was passed around different places. Yusuke begged Madarame to take Goro in, day after day he would cry about it. Madarame liked to remind him of his generosity in keeping one orphan child he had a connection to, let alone one like Goro. A bastard, Madarame taught him the word. A bastard child who had no worth. 

Yusuke refused to stop asking. He threatened running away, leaving Madarame without someone young and impressionable to groom. Madarame took Goro in. 

It was so good at first. Like a prolonged sleepover, the two of them staying up too late whispering and laughing. 

But Goro caught on quick. The lack of meals, the bare shack, the way Madarame spoke. 

“This isn’t how a parent should act,” he told Yusuke. “This isn’t how we should live.”

“I know,” was all he could say back. 

Goro was raised differently. It was apparent early on that he didn’t have the same knack for art that Yusuke did. He refused to even pick up colored pencils or a paintbrush most days. Even when he did, the artwork was shown to Yusuke and then ripped to shreds. 

Madarame hated Goro, and he rarely tried to hide it. In public, Yusuke and Goro were the two orphan boys Madarame so graciously took in. Yusuke was an art prodigy, and Goro was incredibly smart and quick. But at home, things were different. They were both just tools, even if Madarame liked using Yusuke more. 

They grew into their roles nicely. Yusuke only improved rapidly at art, and finally it became clear what his purpose was. His first piece that Madarame really acknowledged, really liked, really thought was  _ art _ . Yusuke created it when he was twelve, a painting that screamed of only torment. The unique pain of losing everything. 

Madarame took it before he was really finished, signed his own name on it, and put it in his next exhibition. 

So it would be like that. 

Goro cracked it one day. He tracked down his father.

Shido Masayoshi. 

They found out he was a high ranking official, untouchable. Goro was furious and inconsolable for days. 

He swore through gritted teeth that he’d find a way to make him pay anyway. 

Yusuke gets better at art, and Goro only gets sharper. Madarame drops any pretense with them, it’s useless anyway. It’s impossible to hide things from Goro anyway. They agree to be good little tools and he doesn’t throw them out.

Yusuke obediently hands over his best pieces and shows the world the ones Madarame doesn’t deem good enough to claim for himself. 

Goro deals with the public well, he’s extremely charismatic, and they like how intelligent and determined he is. 

Just before Goro turns 16, they stumble upon the other world and everything changes.

They’re complaining about Madarame in the shack, which isn’t uncommon. But they say just the right things that night somehow, and end up in the Metaverse. 

Madarame’s palace greets them, and Goro is quick to realize what’s happening. That they aren’t in whatever world they just were. 

Goro awakens to his power protecting Yusuke, the only way it could happen. In turn, Yusuke awakens to his power going to his aid. 

Goro immediately wants to utilize it. But not in the way Yusuke wants to.

Yusuke wants to get them out of their situation, and Goro wants to get revenge on his father.

Eventually, they agree to do both.

Goro finds his father and makes himself useful to him. 

Goro leaves that day with a smile, promising to be careful.

He comes back an assassin.

When Goro is tasked with killing Isshiki Wakaba, well Yusuke simply goes with him. Mementos is nothing like palaces and together the two of them take their first life. Goro’s power seems made for it, and Yusuke is able to weaken her to make it all the easier. 

Hers is the only funeral they attend. 

And then they both work for the scumbag of a man Shido is. 

They find out Madarame is working with him under the table too, and are quietly assured that one day Madarame’s time on the chopping block will come. And they will be allowed to be the ones to carry out the execution.

Goro becomes a detective in order to cover up the conspiracy, initially. And then he uses Loki to fabricate scandals, and solve the cases he creates. 

The second coming of the Detective Prince. He becomes a celebrity, which has always suited him. 

Yusuke works quieter. He feeds Madarame his artwork and works gathering intel because he’s not as in the limelight. It’s easier to be invisible for him.

And together they whisper at night about their plot. Expose Shido and Madarame’s crimes. 

Kill them, Goro says.

Let them rot, Yusuke says.

Their crimes are unforgivable, but they’ve done something invaluable. They’ve made themselves untouchable. Madarame buys them the most expensive sushi now, bothers with heating and cooling, gets them proper furniture and entertainment. Whatever they demand.

They’ve made themselves more important than him. Finally they’ve gained the upper hand. Finally he’s scared of them.

Sometimes he remembers Madarame gave him everything. His inspiration all came from a man he thought of as a father. No matter what he does, Madarame taught him to make art. He can’t erase that.

Goro becomes more and more empty with time. He gets better at hiding his emotions, scarily good at lying, sharper every day like a blade scraping against whetstone over and over. 

He wears masks like a second skin. 

Yusuke becomes angrier. But better at hiding it. He hacks away at their plot every night, perfecting it from every angle. They cannot fail after everything. He gets better at being invisible, fading away into Goro’s shadow so nobody sees him coming. 

He uses being underestimated like a weapon he hones.

They express themselves through art only now. They’ve forgotten words between them, forgotten the meaning of the words that should matter. 

Yusuke guides Goro’s hand against canvas, against paper, against walls, against his skin. Pencil, pen, paint, markers, crayons, teeth and tongue. 

All mediums bring their art to life. And this art will never see the light of day, this art Madarame does not touch. It does not reach the public’s gaze.

It only ever burns. 

Sometimes in the morning, Goro will cover the art on their skin with makeup. It’s the only type they cannot destroy, only wait to fade.

In turn, Goro guides him in the Metaverse. Steadying his hand with a gun, making equal parts art and war with the blood they spill. 

Yusuke becomes much more powerful than he could ever imagine simply because Goro’s hand interlaced with his over a blade fills him with cold fire. 

There’s no need for words when they have that.

The Phantom Thieves ruin everything. They shatter Yusuke’s carefully crafted plan and threaten to topple what they’ve worked so hard for. 

Shido orders them to cut the tie with Madarame before things get worse. Before Madarame is targeted by the outside force. 

Yusuke and Goro’s clash of ideals has to come to a conclusion. 

Do they change his heart as the Thieves have shown is possible? Yusuke wishes they could, but he knows of the crimes Madarame would spill...theirs would be among them. Shido’s would be. They’d be killed, or worse. 

So they kill him.

Goro goes on TV the next morning sobbing, insisting he can’t possibly do his interview. Didn’t they hear? The only father he knew is dead and gone! A tragedy.

Yusuke mourns quietly, keeping up his persona. He releases a piece he originally made in tribute to his mother to the public, letting them think it’s for Madarame. 

Shido praises them for their acting, their competence. Assures them nobody suspects anything. 

He has no idea he’s next.

They keep the shack. 

Goro says it’s for convenience, and Yusuke doesn’t mention the truth. 

They can’t let go of it.

They do defile Madarame’s bed there, and then set most of his belongings ablaze. They track down his Mistresses and ruin them, too. 

But they keep the shack. Yusuke’s childhood scribbles. The halls they played tag in when Madarame was gone. The bedroom they’ve shared most of their lives. All their best hiding spots from when they were kids. The squeaky floorboards. The spiders in the rafters. The paint stains, faint crayon left on the walls. 

They keep it. They just make it theirs. Which is as simple as forgoing two beds for one bigger one, and putting pictures of them up. Select paintings go up on the walls. 

Yusuke’s favorite is the one he started the morning after they buried Madarame, of the two of them. Smiling, genuinely. 

It hangs right up in what they’ve made their living room. 

And they buckle down to further their plot. 

Yusuke bursts into the art world and Goro’s fame skyrockets.

The Phantom Thieves show no sign of slowing down. They take down smaller targets too, ones that don’t even have palaces. They must also have access to Mementos, then.

There are multiple, they’re high schoolers, and must have a lot of connections. That’s the extent of what they know.

Shido tells them to continue denouncing them publicly, that they will be taken down. They’ll be proven “right” in time.

Goro comes home one day after an interview. He says he’s met a boy named Kurusu Akira, and that he’s going to investigate him. 

It takes about three meetings between the two of them for Goro to come home with a smirk.

Kurusu Akira is the leader of the Phantom Thieves, and Goro has it figured out in about a month. 

They don’t tell Shido.

It’s Goro’s idea to force the Phantom Thieves into a specific target so they can assassinate them and pin the blame. 

Yusuke works out the details and combs the plan clean for imperfections before they hand it over to Shido. 

Shido provides all the materials they need and Goro and Yusuke slip in when it’s time to carry out the crime. 

Okumura Kunikazu deserves it, anyway.

Not all of their targets do, but this one certainly did. 

The framing goes perfectly according to plan, and Goro has never been so popular. Yusuke sees the way it gets to him, how he comes home giddy off the attention most days.

They make a lot of art in the days following. They speak little. 

And then they infiltrate the Phantom Thieves. Well, Goro does. 

And then Goro drags him along in it, when they can’t say no. 

He takes the photos, the audio recordings, the records they’ve kept. The evidence they’ve compiled against them, they finally use it. 

Disbanding the Thieves is their intent, but not by simple words. They’re going to take their King. It’s checkmate either way. 

But they don’t need to know that, and they won’t. Not until it’s far too late. 

Goro and Yusuke are wonderful liars. 

Goro adopts a new persona to aid his lie, and Yusuke tries to replace some of the coldness he’s taken to with simple passiveness. 

Under the covers at night Goro and Yusuke whisper still. They can’t seem to shake the habit of being quiet, walking on their toes to minimize noise, and being generally secretive as if they have someone to hide things from anymore. 

Those conversations get more and more excited as their plan comes together.

They shoot Kurusu Akira with their fingers overlapping on the trigger. Yusuke has no idea who really pulls it, and that’s probably for the best.

They press the gun into his limp hand and leave it there.

Goro does not plan on living past his revenge, and that’s something Yusuke has expected. Goro is smart, they both are. Shido’s people will come for them, no matter how much they try to hide.

Yusuke has his own plan in place for that. He’ll get them both out of it. They’ll both survive, they’ll live to finish their revenge plots neatly and retire their personas. 

But in the engine room, Yusuke’s vision falls apart.

Goro kills him. On purpose or on accident, himself or his cognition. 

It’s the only way Yusuke can see it happening. 

Maybe they’d kill each other rather than suffer at the other end of that door. Maybe Goro would kill him as a sacrifice so he could finish out his revenge. Maybe the cognition would finish him first.

But Yusuke would die there, he’s sure. And his what if is destroyed with that. 

He can’t pretend it wouldn’t happen, he can’t ignore the facts of what he knows about Goro and the events that carried out. 

In the end, the only thing Yusuke wishes for is that Goro had someone to share his heavy burden. That maybe it would’ve eased his suffering, left him at least less lonely if nothing else.

He just wishes he could’ve been there from the beginning.

But the truth of the matter is that the engine room would’ve turned out the same or worse. If Yusuke tries to tell himself maybe their plan would actually work and they get away with killing Shido it doesn’t help.

What about the end of the world? What about Shido’s lackeys?

His fantasy falls apart. 

Because he knows that no matter what he did, who he tried to be for Goro then, it wouldn’t have ended happily.

At least here, they get as happy of an ending as possible.

Being together, with the worst far behind them. In the end, that’s all Yusuke can really ask for. 

Goro seems happy with how they’ve ended up, so Yusuke doesn’t spend too much time stuck thinking about it.

He just holds Goro extra close the night after the thought crosses his mind. 

Yusuke is happy with how their lives have ended up, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo this one was a bit dark huh. Well the next one we're back to fluff I promise I don't know where this came from it just happened!


End file.
